Dave Roberts all but admits Dodgers pitching is cooked after Tanner Scott catastrophe

Despite their win on Sunday to avoid a sweep, the Dodgers had an altogether terrible, horrible, no good, very bad series against the Orioles over the weekend. They were walked off twice in a row by Baltimore, the AL East's last-place team, and the blame can mostly be pinned on the Dodgers' highest-paid reliever, Tanner Scott.

In the series opener, Shohei Ohtani pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, and it was up to a long line of bullpen arms to keep that momentum going. Ben Casparius gave up a run on a wild pitch, but Freddie Freeman evened the score at one apiece. It stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth, when LA's $72 million man took the mound and made quick work of his first two hitters on swinging strikeouts to try to send the game to extras.

And then Scott gave up a walk-off solo homer to rookie Samuel Basallo.

The very next day, Scott gave up the two-run, walk-off single that transformed Yoshinobu Yamamoto's near no-hitter into a loss for LA. (Though, to be entirely fair to Scott, he inherited a bases-loaded situation after a terrible outing from Blake Treinen).

After the game, Dave Roberts was asked if he would reconsider handing the ball to Scott in such high-leverage scenarios — basically whether or not he would think about taking Scott out of the closer role. All he could really say was, "What's the alternative?"

Dave Roberts basically admits that Dodgers have no better alternatives for Tanner Scott

Roberts used top prospect and rookie Edgardo Henriquez as an example (while also throwing a little shade at him), "I just don’t feel that Edgardo Henriquez, for example, throwing 10 major-league innings, is now the savior. … There's a track record. There's a trust, a confidence in a certain player, players that have earned it. There's also giving guys opportunities to continue to earn opportunities and not think that they're a savior when they’ve thrown 10 innings in the major leagues."

Treinen clearly isn't the answer, and as effective as Alex Vesia can be (and the Dodgers expect to get him back from the IL on Monday), he's typically been more of a middle reliever or set-up man.

A year ago, the Dodgers may have been able to turn to Kirby Yates or Michael Kopech, but neither are trustworthy this year either. Jack Dreyer, Ben Casparius, and Justin Wrobleski fall more under the Henriquez umbrella, and Anthony Banda under the Vesia umbrella.

So the Dodgers really don't have alternatives. So much for all of their offseason signings, huh? The guys they have are just going to have to figure it out, but they haven't given anyone reason to be optimistic that that's going to happen.